Socceroos remember Argentina

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Australian soccer fans will never forget the great Diego Maradona, specifically the part he played in destroying the Socceroos' 1994 World Cup dreams.

Argentina was out of form and out of luck in the South American qualifying competition for the World Cup due to be held in the US that year.

Almost unthinkably for a nation that had won the World Cup in 1986 and lost the final in 1990, Argentina missed out on direct qualification for USA '94, succumbing to a morale-sapping 5-0 home defeat at the hands of Colombia in its last qualification match. That failure meant it had to play against the Oceania champion, Australia, for the final cup berth.

Then Australian coach Eddie Thomson opted to play the first match at home at the Sydney Football Stadium. Apart from Maradona, the visitors contained players of the calibre of Fernando Redondo and the great goalscorer Gabriel Batistuta.

Socceroo stalwart Paul Wade was on the great Argentinian, and followed him around like a shadow, desperate to prevent him having any impact on the game. By and large Wade did a good job - except for one fateful moment when Maradona was able to extricate himself into space and send over a cross that frontman Abel Balbo converted after 37 minutes.

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Aurelio Vidmar put Australia back in the match when he equalised in the 43rd minute, but the Argentinians did enough to go home with a draw.

Two weeks later the teams met at the River Plate Stadium in Buenos Aires in a scrappy affair that was decided not by the genius of Maradona but by an own goal - the ball deflecting off the boot of Socceroo captain Alex Tobin. Maradona and his team were off to the World Cup.